Table of Contents

Southeast Asian Refugee Self-Sufficiency Study, 1982 (ICPSR 8454)

Principal Investigator(s):
Caplan, Nathan;
Whitmore, John K.

Summary:

This survey gauged the economic and social status of
Southeast Asian refugees who arrived in the United States after
September 1978, a group generally known as the "Boat People." Special
emphasis was placed on investigating how these refugees adapted to life
in the United States and achieved economic self-sufficiency. The survey
asked about educational and occupational backgrounds, household
composition, family size, secondary migration after arrival in the
United States, English proficiency, health problems, health care,
insurance coverage, employment, earned income, rent payments,
automobile ownership, and the use of government and private programs
providing income assistance, vocational training, and other kinds of
services. Respondents also were queried about financial setbacks
incurred since arrival in the United States, financial support of
persons living outside the household, membership in clubs and
associations, problems faced in adjusting to life in the United States,
degree of satisfaction with housing, neighborhood, services received,
and life as a whole, and perceptions about prospects for the future.

This survey gauged the economic and social status of
Southeast Asian refugees who arrived in the United States after
September 1978, a group generally known as the "Boat People." Special
emphasis was placed on investigating how these refugees adapted to life
in the United States and achieved economic self-sufficiency. The survey
asked about educational and occupational backgrounds, household
composition, family size, secondary migration after arrival in the
United States, English proficiency, health problems, health care,
insurance coverage, employment, earned income, rent payments,
automobile ownership, and the use of government and private programs
providing income assistance, vocational training, and other kinds of
services. Respondents also were queried about financial setbacks
incurred since arrival in the United States, financial support of
persons living outside the household, membership in clubs and
associations, problems faced in adjusting to life in the United States,
degree of satisfaction with housing, neighborhood, services received,
and life as a whole, and perceptions about prospects for the future.

Access Notes

Data in this collection are available only to users at ICPSR member institutions.
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access to these data files.

This study is provided by ICPSR.
ICPSR provides leadership and training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis
for a diverse and expanding social science research community.

Universe:
Vietnamese, Sino-Vietnamese, and Lao refugees who arrived
in the United States after September 1978.

Data Type(s):
survey data

Data Collection Notes:

The data in the hierarchical file (Part 1) are
organized into three levels of hierarchy: (1) households, (2) families,
and (3) individuals. In all, the data cover 6,775 members of 2,493
families residing in 1,384 households, for a total of 10,652 records of
all types. Of the 6,775 family members, 1,384 are respondents, 2,776
are other adults, and 2,615 are children. Level 1 contains 494
variables and has one record per household. Level 2 contains 63
variables and has one record per family. Level 3 has a single record
for each individual. It contains 308 variables for respondents, 309 for
other adults, and 21 for children. To use these files, users need to
refer to the dictionary listings (Part 7) for column locations and to
the codebook for code explanations.